The Wrightsville Beach Sailfish Tournament (WBSFT), hosted by Intracoastal Angler, attracted 10 boats in its third year, and those ten boats generated 16 sailfish releases over two days of fishing, a number made more impressive by the fact that the first seven of the nine possible fishing days featured up to 10-foot seas.
The primary leaderboard for this event is based on billfish releases, with 100 points awarded to vessels equipped with omnidirectional sonar technology for each sailfish, blue marlin, white marlin, and spearfish released, and 200 points awarded per release for vessels without omnidirectional sonar technology.
In addition, several TWTs are offered, as well as a Sailfish Lottery and Gamefish payouts for both wahoo and tuna (yellowfin and blackfin).
The boat taking the top spot in this year’s event was “Horse,” a 58’ Cap-N-Squid Boatworks out of Wrightsville Beach with 800 points coming from 8 releases, as they were in the sonar division.
Capt. Jordan Vass ran “Horse” on their first day of fishing, and the day stayed slow until about 10:00. They were targeting an area in 100 fathoms and on the backside of the Same Ole Hole where they had seen a current edge and some eddies with not a lot of current.
After 10:00, they missed two sails, and then they had four billfish come into the spread at once, three sails and one white marlin. Of the four, they hooked two and released one. A little later they generated a triple header and then one more single to finish the day going 5 for 10.
On the second day of fishing, owner Les Edwards captained the boat back to the same area of water. He found bait, started working the area, and ultimately released three more sailfish (and missed a blue marlin).
Second place went to “Sancocho,” a 55’ Viking based out of Beaufort, NC, with 400 points. Not only was this the boat’s first top three finish, they were also the only boat in the top three of this tournament not using sonar technology, so each of their two sail releases earned 200 points. On the boat for this event were Capt. Bennett Norman, Chase Diller, Finn Diller, Curren Vaughn, and Braxton Tutor.
“Sancocho” stayed close to Morehead City on their first day of fishing and finished the day going 1 for 3 on sails. The successful release came later in the day on a nice break where they finally were able to get away from grass. The sail hit a ballyhoo on the left long line, and Finn Diller was the angler.
Their second sail release came on the second day of fishing. Once again they stayed in the Morehead area, and after lunch while heading back in the direction of Morehead, a sail hit the bridge pole. Braxton Tutor was the angler.
“John Boat,” a 59’ Spencer out of Wrightsville Beach and in the sonar division, finished in third place with 300 points, coming from three sails.
Owner Seth Yowell, Capt. Jed Galloway, Mate Michael Black, and crew started out south on the first day of fishing and worked their way north. Day One went slow with no releases recorded.
On the second day, they started at the 170 line. The water was a little too green, so they headed further offshore and found a temperature change. Then not long after, they got a double. They continued working the break and generated another double, this time releasing one and losing one. They finished their Day Two going 3 for 8 and seeing and raising an additional 2-3 sails.
“John Boat” also won the Sailfish Lottery, a lottery where each billfish release in the tournament is given a number, and then one number is drawn at the Awards Ceremony.
In the Gamefish competition, “Outnumbered” took first place in the Wahoo Division with 41.2 lbs., and “Horse” won the Tuna Division with a 24.5 lb. blackfin.
At the conclusion of the event, money gained from sponsorships, entry fees, and donations from participants resulted in roughly $20,000 donated to local charities.
“Even though we didn’t have as many boats as we were hoping for,” Tournament Director Arlen Ash stated, “we have such a great fishing community that helped us pull off such a great event that can give so much money to charity. Next year we will host the event a little bit earlier in October.”
The mission of the WBSFT is to promote the fall sailfish fishery that is very overlooked and underrated at Wrightsville Beach, by putting on a fun event while passing along any revenues to charity, as well as encouraging youth participation.
More information on the WBSFT can be found at www.wbsft.com.